OAKLAND — The city’s director of its housing and community development department is leaving her position, a city spokesman said Monday.

Michele Byrd is leaving after serving after eight years as the head of the department.

“We are so appreciative of Michele Byrd’s service to Oakland and her dedication to housing issues,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf spokesman Justin Berton said in a statement.

“Housing security is one of the highest and most urgent priorities for Oakland and our entire region.”

He would not comment further about Byrd’s departure, saying it is “a personnel matter.”

Byrd, a former special projects manager for the city and San Francisco County, served as the housing department’s deputy director before becoming the director in February 2012.

Berton said that Maraskeshia Smith, an Oakland assistant city administrator, will handle “day-to-day oversight” for the department beginning May 3. Smith, a former director for Cincinnati’s department of public services, began working for the city last July.

George Kelly is a breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Previously he worked as an online coordinator and, before that, a copy editor and page designer for Bay Area-based newspapers and magazines. Off work, he enjoys playing in bands, busking and karaoke. His first newspaper job was as a Washington Post paperboy.

More in California News

"I fully support the principles behind Senate Bill 1: to defeat efforts by the president and Congress to undermine vital federal protections that protect clean air, clean water and endangered species," Newsom said in a written statement.

Attorneys for eight drug distributors, pharmacies and retailers facing trial next month for their roles in the opioid crisis want to disqualify the federal judge overseeing their cases, saying he has shown bias in his effort to obtain a multibillion-dollar global settlement.